|
|
|
|
|
Tear gas,
water cannons for protesting Kejriwal, supporters
Quiet burial for GoM on honour killings
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Actor AK Hangal dead
News Analysis
Bring no-trust move, Cong dares BJP
Truth will be out soon: Kanda
To sell off Goa casino
Aerial patrolling of power lines on anvil
Multiple factors behind grid failure: Probe
5 injured as Assam violence continues
Indo-Pak MPs: Let us make border irrelevant
SC quashes admission after nurse completes PG course
Jantar Mantar
|
|
Tear gas, water cannons for protesting Kejriwal, supporters
New Delhi, August 26 The Delhi Police resorted to tear-gas shelling, use of water cannons and lathicharge to disperse the crowds that were surging towards the residences notwithstanding the prohibitory orders imposed under the Section 144 of the IPC. The police detained Kejriwal, Bhushan and a few others for some time, but let off them subsequently. There were no reports of any casualties in the police action. Another IAC member, Kiran Bedi, who is said to be upset over targeting the BJP, did not participate in the agitation. Before marching to the three destinations, the IAC activists had gathered at the Jantar Mantar on the Parliament Street. Addressing the gathering, Kejriwal said both the Congress and the BJP were responsible for fomenting corruption and looting the nation. “We have succeeded in what we wanted to achieve and now let’s return peacefully. We have called off the strike as now the government and the main opposition stand exposed over the coal block allocation. The Centre cannot suppress this movement against graft and this will have far-reaching results,” said Kejriwal after being released from the Mandir Marg police station. His associates -- Manish Sisodia, Prashant Bhushan and Kumar Vishwas -- were detained for almost an hour at the Parliament Street police station. “Neither the Congress nor the BJP wants Parliament to run. They are hand-in-gloves or else why no action is taken against the BJP whenever the Congress comes to power. Licenses are given away to those recommended by BJP Chief Ministers and vice-versa,” said Kejriwal. Coal mines were allocated without bidding at throwaway prices and even the Prime Minister had admitted that they were sold out at cheaper prices in order to check the cost of electricity for the people. Coal mines were allotted to companies that made cassettes and innerwears and the Chief Ministers recommended the names of their favourite companies, Kejriwal said. Posing a volley of questions to the Prime Minister and the BJP chief, Kejriwal wanted to know whether the BJP, the CPM and the BJD ruled states had given Singh wrong advice against auctioning coal blocks. He also asked why the licences of coal blocks should not be cancelled.
|
|
|
Quiet burial for GoM on honour killings
The group was headed by former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, now the President. Following Mukherjee's exit, the government wound up some GoMs; the one on honour crimes appears to be among those though the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting didn't remember its status when contacted. The fact that the GoM is not working for long was evident from the response of Law Minister Salman Khurshid who told The Tribune that he had not attended any meeting of this GoM. Khurshid replaced Veerappa Moily as the Law Minister in July 2011. Asked yesterday whether the GoM on honour killings existed or had been disbanded, Khurshid said he did not know. V Narayanasamy, MoS, PMO, said the same thing. The last time the country heard from this vital group was in August 2010 when it met to take a view on the proposal to amend the IPC and Indian Evidence Act for including honour killings in the definition of murder and making khap panchayats liable for such murders where ever their role was established. Consensus on the law had then eluded the GoM. Before the GoM met that year, the Cabinet met on July 8, 2010, to discuss the need for a separate law to curb honour killings with the then Home Minister P Chidambaram and Information Minister Ambika Soni firmly batting for doing something concrete to protect vulnerable couples. The Cabinet, however, turned down the said proposals to amend the IPC with the idea of bringing honour killings under the definition of murder in Section 300 and decided to refer the issue to the GoM on honour killings. It asked it to "find legal redress for the honour-related crimes as the existing provisions of the law were not sufficient to deal with them". Ambika Soni had announced the constitution of this GoM in 2010. Today when contacted, she said she didn't remember its status. The group had been set up with a view to introduce an anti-honour killing law in monsoon session of Parliament in 2010. The proposed amendments to the IPC were piloted by the Home Ministry, which also wanted amendments to the Indian Evidence Act to put the onus of proving innocence on khap panchayats involved in honour crimes. Importantly, the GoM had in 2010 held consultations with the states on the issue of the law. Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, invited for his inputs, had defended khap panchayats saying these were social organisations not known to order killings of people in the name of honour. Little is known of what happened to the GoM afterwards. the formation
The GoM was constituted in mid 2010 following a spurt in honour killings across North India, especially Haryana the vanishing act
The last time the country heard from this vital group was in August 2010 when it met to take a view on the proposal to amend the IPC and Indian Evidence Act for including honour killings in the definition of murder and making khap panchayats liable for such murders where ever their role was established
|
|
Actor AK Hangal dead
Hangal, who recently appeared in television serial Madhubala, suffered a hip fracture after falling at home on August 16. He had been admitted to the hospital since then where he developed other complications. He was put on a ventilator, but the life-support system was removed at his request. Only a handful of Bollywood personalities like Raza Murad, Rakesh Bedi and Ila Arun showed up at Hangal's funeral. "He was a veteran freedom fighter and actor who taught us a lot," Murad said. Hangal, who was born Avtar Vineet Kishan Hangal in a Kashmiri Pandit family at Sialkot in pre-Independence Pakistan, first made contact with Bollywood as a tailor stitching costumes for a number of prominent personalities, including the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Active in theatre as a member of the Indian People Theatre Movement, Hangal was drawn into the film industry as a character actor. He acted in more than 200 films and TV serials since 1967. Among his more memorable roles include that of Rahim Chacha in Sholay and character roles in Abhimaan, Shaukeen, Parichay, etc. Hangal went on to perform in television serials telecast on Doordarshan before the advent of satellite television. Hangal, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006, faded from public memory only to hit the headlines last year when newspapers reported that he was struggling to find money for food and medicine. The film fraternity rallied and funds were collected to support Hangal and his retired cinematographer son Vijay. Earlier this year, Hangal had recovered enough to perform in Madhubala, a TV show.
|
|
News Analysis
New Delhi, August 26 Determined to keep up the momentum on this issue by disrupting Parliament and then taking it to the streets, the BJP believes “coalgate” has the potential to have the same impact on the public psyche as the Bofors kickbacks scandal which dethroned the Congress in 1989. There are some similarities between the two cases. Like the coal blocks scam, the Bofors controversy picked up speed after an adverse report by the then national auditor. In both instances, the scandals brought the Prime Ministers in the direct firing line of the Opposition. Rajiv Gandhi, who won a massive mandate in 1984 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination and was a clear favourite with the electorate, soon lost all goodwill as “corruption in high places” dominated political discourse at that time. Similarly, ‘coalgate’ has placed Manmohan Singh in the eye of a storm and is threatening to chip away at his otherwise untainted and clean image. And like the eighties, there is growing public disillusionment with the Congress whose credibility has been severely eroded following a series of corruption scandals which have hit the UPA government. The BJP strategy is to cash in on the prevailing anti-Congress mood and even push for an early Lok Sabha poll. However, the saffron party may find it difficult to repeat the 1989 Bofors story in 2012. For one, the BJP does not have a commanding figure like VP Singh who had emerged as the prime mover of the anti-Bofors campaign while the BJP and the Left rode piggyback on his massive public appeal. In the late 80s,the anti-Congress sentiment was so strong that ideologically-opposed parties like the BJP and the Left Front chose to overlook their differences to join the battle against the grand old party. This time,the opposition is divided. The BJP “communal taint”, which was not so pronounced in the eighties, is proving to be a serious in becoming a unifying force for all the other non-Congress parties. Although the National Front, which came to power in 1989, had its share of ambitious leaders like Devi Lal and Chandra Shekhar, there is no dearth of wannabe Prime Ministerial candidates today. Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik and J.Jayalalitha and Mulayum Singh Yadav all fancy themselves as competent contenders for the top job. This was evident when BJP leader Sushma Swaraj’s effort to unite non-Congress parties came a cropper as the Samajwadi Party, which is supporting the UPA government, backed out of meeting she proposed to convene on Monday to chalk out its future strategy. Similarly, key UPA ally Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee the BJP’s overtures. The CPM, which is wary of joining hands with the BJP, has already taken a divergent view on coalgate. Unlike the BJP, it has not demanded the PM’s resignation and instead wants the matter to be debated in Parliament. While the Bofors scandal hit Rajiv Gandhi personally, the BJP’s campaign on coal blocks is not so watertight because of the involvement of its own state governments which opposed the concept of competitive bidding.
|
|
|
Bring no-trust move, Cong dares BJP
New Delhi, August 26 Ever since Congress president Sonia Gandhi directed party MPs to go on the offensive, the government and the party have started a counter-campaign. First, it was the Group of Ministers on Media led by Finance Minister P Chidambaram stating that no loss had occurred since no coal had been mined from the allocated blocks. Now, two senior leaders, party general secretary BK Hari Prasad and newly-appointed spokesman PC Chacko, have said the BJP should bring such a no-trust motion instead of stalling Parliament to demand the Prime Minister’s resignation. While Prasad joined the issue with the BJP here, Chacko said this at Thrissur in Kerala on Saturday. The duo challenged the BJP to test the strength of its charge against the government on the floor of the House. The whole of last week was lost and indications are that the rest of the monsoon session, scheduled till September 7, would be a wash-out. “Chhattisgarh was given a large allocation of coal due to the CM's close relations with the BJP. The state suffered losses of Rs 1,054 crore. This is not a new thing. Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka also suffered losses and both have BJP governments. That is why the BJP does not want to discuss this matter in Parliament," Prasad said.
|
|
Truth will be out soon: Kanda
“Media is giving only one side of the story. I will bring out the truth through you (media),” said Kanda. Yesterday, he had claimed that he has been framed in the case, adding further that a political conspiracy had been hatched to tarnish his image. Kanda’s seven-day police remand, which ended on Saturday, was extended by three more days by Rohini court in order to enable the Delhi Police to extract vital information and recover crucial evidence against him, including mobile phones and missing hard discs. Kanda is reported to have purchased several properties in the name of Geetika. The police is also verifying the bank accounts of the MDLR airline employees as Kanda had transferred Rs 3.5 lakhs from Geetika’s account in connection with the payment for certain properties purchased by him. The police is conducting raids at Kanda’s Gurgaon residence and the MDLR office to trace the mobile phones used by him for sending messages to Geetika and also her official phone that she returned after resigning as Director of the company in December last. The police is
also on the lookout for the missing hard disks of the computers seized form the MDLR office and
Kanda’s residence. Further, the Delhi Police is looking forward to interrogate Ankita whose name also figured in Geetika’s suicide note. She is currently in Singapore. Though she was expected to join the probe today, according
to police sources, she did not turn up till Sunday evening. In the suicide note, Geetika had alleged that Ankita had an illicit relationship with Kanda. The Delhi Police has claimed that Geetika wanted to end all relations with Kanda and the MDLR Airlines but Kanda did not want her to leave the company and was adamant on
retaining her.
|
|
To sell off Goa casino
Gurgaon, August 26 The deal will be through latest by Wednesday. Golden Globe Hotels Private Limited is a subsidiary of the MDLR Airlines, which shut shop in 2009. Jain said Golden Globe Hotels Private Limited now wants to invest in real estate. While many claim that the deal has been struck after Kanda's arrest as casino is believed to be pivot to the Geetika case, authorities insist that exit from the casino business was planned long back. The company has already paid money to the government as annual fee. The casino ship is anchored on Mandovi river and is set for renovation. Kanda acquired the offshore Rio Casino from Hotel Leela but could not begin business because of licencing issues. Goa currently has four offshore casinos that are operational. Rio Casino will be the fifth when it becomes functional. In 2009, Kanda's MDLR Airlines also got a contract to run another casino at Riveira de Goa at Arpora. The contract for this onshore casino, called Mint, was terminated in November 2009. Geetika Sharma, a former air hostess with the MDLR Airlines who blamed Kanda for her troubles and committed suicide recently, worked at Mint along with Bollywood starlet Nupur Mehta and Ankita Singh. Ankita was a director at Mint casino. In her statement to the Goa Police in 2009, Ankita confessed that she had a lovechild with Kanda. She told the police that she was married to the Haryana politician.
|
|
Aerial patrolling of power lines on anvil
New Delhi, August 26 The failure of power grids for two straight days last month impacted more than half the country's population. Power Grid runs five electricity grids in the country - Northern, Eastern, North-Eastern, Southern and Western. In its 2011-12 annual report, the company has said that it has state-of-the-art Emergency Restoration Systems (ERS) at strategic locations for restoration of collapsed transmission line towers in case of eventualities such as earthquake, fire, cyclone, landslides and sabotage. "Some potent options are also being explored like use of robotic technology for condition monitoring of conductor, earthwire and hardwares besides aerial patrolling of transmission lines using helicopters," the report said. According to the company, the complexities involved in operating grids are escalating especially with expanding transmission network. Power Grid Chairman and Managing Director RN Nayak, in the annual report, has said that the Indian power grid had not experienced any major grid disturbance during the past nine years till the major disturbances on July 30 and July 31. The Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern grids tripped on July 31, less than 24 hours after the Northern grid failed and was restored. On the failures, Nayak noted that the essential loads were restored "at the fastest pace within few hours of
the incidents and power supply was restored progressively and normalised completely on the same day of the incident(s)". Nayak, without providing specific details, said various actions were being taken by the company to avoid such incidents in the future. The company was operating about 92,981 circuit km of inter-state transmission lines as on March 31, 2012. One circuit km refers to one km of electrical transmission line. Power Grid raked in profit after tax of Rs 3,254.95 crore on turnover of Rs 10,785.01 crore in the last fiscal.
— PTI
|
|
Multiple factors behind grid failure: Probe
Yamunanagar/Ambala, August 26 Not holding any single factor responsible for grid disturbances, the committee identified several factors that it said led to the grid collapse. The committee said that due to the disturbance in the smooth flow of electricity over the transmission lines, the protection system of the grid got activated and shut down the grid. The disturbance was caused due to depleted transmission network, overdrawals by states and non-compliance of directions by the Regional Load Dispatch Centre and regulatory commissions by the constituent states.
|
|
5 injured as Assam violence continues
Imphal, August 26 The injured included three women and a five-year-old girl at Salakati and Fakiragram in Kokrajhar district. The two families were on their way to Salakati and Fakiragram railway stations, respectively, to catch a train to Dhubri. State home secretary GD Tripathy said that all the injured were out of danger and undergoing treatment at a local hospital. Meanwhile, the authorities have withdrawn the indefinite curfew imposed on Friday in Kokrajhar district in the wake of the arrest of Kokrajhar (west) constituency MLA and Bodo People’s Front leader Pradeep Kumar Brahma. He had been held the previous night on the charge of inciting violence. In response to the relaxation in curfew from 6 am to 9 pm beginning today, the BPF, which rules the BTC, withdrew the indefinite Kokrajhar district bandh that it had called to protest against Brahma’s arrest. The police today found the charred remains of two vehicles in Chirang district this morning. The vehicles were attacked by miscreants in Choudhurypara village under Bijni police station last evening. Five persons were killed and a person could not be traced. The victims were inmates of a relief camp and had gone out without informing the police or the camp incharge.
|
|
Indo-Pak MPs: Let us make border irrelevant New Delhi, August 26 The two countries should also permit educationists and senior citizens visa-free access. These are among some radical recommendations made at the fourth India-Pakistan Parliamentarians dialogue that concluded here recently. The dialogue was co-chaired by former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and Pakistani Senator Khurram Dastgir Khan. Both Indian and Pakistan delegations included Parliamentarians from different parties. Releasing a joint statement at a press conference here, Sinha said the meeting was held in an “extremely cordial” atmosphere and no attempt was made to sweep anything under the carpet. “The feeling among the people of both countries is of friendship and peace...it is quite clear that the people of the two countries want to live in peace and prosper together.”
|
|
|
SC quashes admission after nurse completes PG course
New Delhi, August 26 A Bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and Ranjana Desai quashed the admission as she had obtained only 54.71 per cent in her graduation against 55 per cent required for doing postgraduation.
|
|
Jantar Mantar
The raging controversy over CAG's report on coal blocks allocation may have dented the UPA government's credibility but Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal appears to have come into his own as he spiritedly defends the ruling coalition before the media on a daily basis.
Although Jaiswal has been known to be a media-friendly person, he also had a reputation of being ill-informed on the subjects on which he was questioned. However, this time, the minister has done his home work. Apparently, he has been working hard on the government defence for several weeks as the CAG report on coal blocks had been in the public domain for some time and it was expected that the Opposition would target Prime Minister Manmohan Singh since he was in charge of the ministry when these controversial decisions were taken. Jaiswal underwent intensive coaching by senior officials from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) who spent hours briefing him on various aspects of the case and the answers to all possible questions which could be raised by mediapersons. All that work has certainly paid up as Jaiswal has managed to put up a fairly convincing show in his press conferences and interviews. Pranabda's Durga Puja plan
When Sonia sat in a rear row
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
New Delhi, August 26
Mumbai, August 26
New Delhi, August 26
Ever since Pranab Mukherjee took up residence at the Rashtrapati Bhavan as the country's President, questions have been raised about his annual Durga Puja celebration plans at his ancestral village Mirati in West Bengal's Birbhum district. It was assumed that Pranabda, as he is affectionately called, may not be able to make it this time because of the tight security cover which comes with Presidency. But Mukherjee has vetoed all security concerns and decided that he will not deviate from his plan to celebrate puja in his village as he has been doing for years now. The district authorities have already been informed about his travel plans and asked to make the necessary arrangements. However, the President will not be able to spend four days in his village as he would normally do in the past but that's because of upcoming state visits which require his presence in the Capital.
Arriving late for a musical evening held in the Parliament Library building last week, Congress president Sonia Gandhi entered unnoticed and sat quietly in one of the rear rows. When this was brought to the notice of Rajya Sabha member Javed Akhtar, who was the chief organiser of the show, the poet-lyricist rushed to persuade Sonia Gandhi to sit in the front row but she declined. Minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla, who never misses an opportunity to impress the boss, followed suit but he too proved unsuccessful in his mission. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar also rushed her OSD to escort the Congress president to a better seat but met with no luck. All this scurrying around the auditorium ended up distracting the audience. As a result there were more people looking back to spot Sonia Gandhi than those concentrating on the musical fare on offer. Titled "Shukrana", the show was organised specially to thank parliamentarians for the passage of the Copyright Bill which will ensure payment of due royalties to artistes.